Thirds played a friendly against Morton at Cathkin a few weeks before they (Morton that is) were due to meet Rangers in the League Cup Final of season 1963/64.
Morton at the time were in the old 2nd Division and to reach a major final from there was quite a feat, so the game was arranged I presume to give Morton a match against 1st Division opposition.
They thoroughly deserved to be in the Final as they were defeating handsomely anything put in front of them being ably captained by ex Thirds man Jim Reilly with goals a plenty being scored by Alan McGraw. Their manager was the shrewd Hal Stewart who I suppose has to be ‘credited’ with initiating the influx of foreign players certainly to Scotland.
Morton were to field a new ‘mysterious’ goalkeeper and the ‘back pages’ were full of intrigue as to who the man of mystery was and as Hal Stewart would not divulge his identity the press labelled him Mr X.
I can’t remember how the tannoy announced him before the game but a name was not given so it must have been the usual ‘trialist’ or ‘newman’.
Out he came: 6 feet tall, thick yellow/blond hair and wearing an all black kit (at a time when it was rare to see a goalkeeper wearing anything other than the usual yellow/orange/green top) he certainly cut an impressive figure.
The match ended in a 1-1 draw and I don’t think he was required to do anything spectacular but what sticks out in my mind was when play was at the ‘other end’ he would march out of his box to the edge of the ‘D’ and stand bolt upright, legs apart and arms folded across his chest watching what was happening up the park. Now this might not seem peculiar today but what you must remember is at that time a keeper never left his goal line (to leave the 6 yard box would certainly incur the wrath of his manager and team mates) let alone stand outside the penalty box and to see a keeper do this caused gasps among the crowd and much mirth I guess too.
The papers next day had labelled him ‘Mr X the man in black’.
Who was he?
Erik Sorensen
I believe he was the first of the many Scandanavian imports to come to Morton and Dundee United did get in on the act as well.
Erik eventually went to Rangers and got the blame for losing the last game (their only loss) of the 1967/68 season against Aberdeen and thus the league although even if they had won this match they still wouldn’t have won the title.
He hardly kicked a ball after this and was ultimately transferred.
Back to the game I believe the Thirds players either got Cine-cameras or new club blazers (no mention of cash!!!) for all their efforts against Morton and i would expect they got the same.
